The following statement can be attributed to Berin Szoka, President of TechFreedom , regarding today’s 6-3 Supreme Court decision in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc. to strike down a Vermont law restricting marketing to doctors based on their past history of writing drug prescriptions. The law required that doctors opt in before drug companies could use data about their prescription patterns to market (generally name-brand) drugs to them.

The Court has reaffirmed the core meaning of the First Amendment: government must trust the marketplace of ideas unless fraud or deception occurs.

The Court unequivocally declared that “information is speech,” including both its creation and dissemination, even while recognizing the privacy problems raised by the “capacity of technology to find and publish personal information.” Thus, restrictions on data collection, use and transfer must satisfy First Amendment scrutiny. Future courts will therefore strike down privacy laws that burden too much speech, such as by requiring opt-in rather than opt-out. The government must clearly establish the need for privacy regulation and consider the availability of less-restrictive alternatives, such as user empowerment, education and the enforcement of existing laws.

Policymakers should carefully consider the values recognized by the Court today before further clamping down on the flow of data that drives speech throughout the information economy.

Tech Freedom is a non-profit, non-partisan technology think tank launched in 2011. TechFreedom is excited about the future. Focusing on issues of Internet freedom and technological progress, we work to protect innovation and discovery from powers that fear change. Technology is the great driver of social progress and human well-being, and we aim to keep it that way.